Andrew Yap

The Climb

Andrew Yap's career has been built by moving between retail and hospitality without treating either as a side line. Since 2007, BookXcess and Big Bad Wolf have been the core of his work as co-founder and CEO, a role that required scale, consistency, and the patience to turn an idea into something that lasts. That kind of operating discipline later carried into bars, where the same habits apply: build the system, hold the standard, keep the format viable. By 2019, that approach had extended to The Old Man Singapore, where he became Managing Partner and co-owner. The shift into hospitality did not read as a break from the earlier work so much as another application of it: shaping a venue with enough structure to hold attention, and enough identity to stay useful to the trade. His portfolio now sits across books and bars, but the through-line is the same kind of long-view execution.

Today

Andrew Yap is the Managing Partner and Co-owner at The Old Man Singapore. The work keeps him in cocktail bars, where the craft is as much about room control and service rhythm as it is about what is in the glass. In that setting, details do the heavy lifting.

In Their Words The language tracks how bar projects often move: first a loose exchange, then a longer period of refinement before the idea is ready to be built. In this case, the project was not defined by the first conversation alone, but by the years of discussion that followed and the point at which The Old Man Hong Kong gave the concept enough structure to sharpen the details.

Recognition

Andrew's honors include London Essence Best New Opening Award. In hospitality, that kind of recognition speaks to more than launch-day attention; it reflects whether a venue can establish its standard from the outset and make that standard legible to the room.